All Blacks centre Braydon Ennor has been ruled out of New Zealand’s upcoming Test matches against Fiji and Tonga.
New Zealand assistant coach Scott McLeod on Friday confirmed that Ennor has undergone surgery for appendicitis and will be unable to play five weeks.
“He was sore for a couple of days in the stomach, we weren’t quite sure what it was, but we see it’s acute appendicitis, and he’ll be out for roughly five weeks or so. He’s in a better position than he was a couple of days ago,” McLeod said.
The absence of the 23-year-old Crusaders star is a further blow to coach Ian Foster’s plans, which have already had to compensate for Jack Goodhue being ruled out for the rest of the season while fellow centre, Anton Lienert-Brown will also miss the first two Tests in July.
But Foster hasn’t called a replacement into the squad for the matches against Tonga on 3 July and Fiji on 10 and 17 July.
“In terms of bringing somebody in I think a replacement is just going to be from within the squad at the moment and see how we go,” McLeod explained.
“There’s a number of options that can be played in the midfield so we’ll go from there.”
Potential replacements include David Havili and rookie Quinn Tupaea, while a reshuffle could see the likes of Rieko Ioane and Damian McKenzie slot into the midfield.
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